34 comments:

Helen Thomas - the doyenne of White House Correspondents, who sat center-front for 30 some-odd years and was given the first question at many news conferences and Presidential appearances, came into sharp focus today.

CNN reports she's made another anti-Semetic rant. She claimed that "Congress, the White House and Hollywood, Wall Street are owned by the Zionists. No question."

As a result, her alma-mater has decided maybe they shouldn't be handing out a Spirit of Diversity award in the name of a the committed Nazi sympathizer.

The rest of the Washington Press Corps, which held Thomas out as their standard-bearer for 30 years, were remarkably silent about whether or not the Congress, Barack Obama, and Hollywood, are - in fact - being run out of Jerusalem.

On the other hand, Crack, somebody's wonderful black son got rescued from possible injury by a white dude when I was on my business trip last week.

The boy was pulling a normal-sized carry-on and he and his parents got on an escalator on our way to the gates after we cleared security. He was lagging behind his parents, and he hadn't laced up his shoes. One lace got caught in the moving stairs and he was yanked off his feet. The white guy reacted quickly, yelling to the boy's parents that the child was snagged and then pulling the boy's foot out his shoe.

It's not clear that the boy would have been injured, because the escalator jammed and stopped as it sucked the shoelace, into the comb plate, and the boy's father was able to pull the shoelace free with only minor effort. But there have been numerous instances of children being injured on escalators (see snopes.com) and sometimes pretty seriously so, so I know for a fact that the white guy was pretty happy to have been in a position to be helpful.

Though in all the excitement I don't recall the boy's parents thanking me.

When I was three, my grandmother flew with me from Ohio to California to rejoin my parents, after having visited with my Ohio relatives. In the airport, at the top of the escalator, I told my mom that I wanted to go down by myself. But I was too scared to take that first step. As I hesitated, a nice lady offered to to help, and she held my hand on the way down.

Chip, that's very kind of you. I was joking. I'm sure your chocolate is delightful, and I'd enjoy showing it to my sister in law who works for a huge chocolate company, and I'm touched you'd send it to me. But I'll pass.